


when the party's over

by Notawriterjustalurker



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: A little jealous Matt I guess, Car Sex, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff and Smut, Karedevil Bingo, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:41:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24947806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notawriterjustalurker/pseuds/Notawriterjustalurker
Summary: "Oh. Are you with someone?""Yes, I'm with someone.""Oh…" he paused and lifted his beer to his lips – "well I won't tell if you wont."The thought of slipping off her stool and leaving the way she came was mightily tempting, she would have done it too, if it weren't for the press of a hand on her waist and a familiar, hair-raising rasp at her back of her neck."Karen? Is that you?"She breathed out a sigh of relief.Matt."Hey —"He cut her off, "sorry I'm late," and like it was the most normal thing in the world, he leaned in and he kissed her –  a peck, quick enough that she barely had to time to register it, but she found herself stock still, frozen for what felt like an age until Matt roused her with a squeeze of his hand on her waist that said; 'play along.'
Relationships: Matt Murdock/Karen Page
Comments: 12
Kudos: 40
Collections: Karedevil Bingo





	when the party's over

**Author's Note:**

> This is for karedevilBingo! 
> 
> Prompt: fake relationship
> 
> So we all know this is a God tier prompt 😂 I wanted to try and write it even though with Karedevil it's nearly impossible to write as a slow burn because they're far too in love with eachother to pretend anything for long 😏
> 
> Also, look at me being ORIGINAL with that Billie Ellish song title 😂😂

As far as parties go, this one sucked. 

According to Foggy, they were here to make connections, to 'broaden their clientele base' — _to mingle._

Of course it wasn't a real party. It was a formal function, masquerading itself under the word 'party' and it had horrified Karen from the word go. She would have been more than happy to sit back and let Matt and Foggy attend on their own if only Foggy hadn't decided to bail at the last minute. That, of course, left them with a _Matt_ problem. Matt needed a chaperone, (only for show of course) which had now been left up to Karen.

The news had sort of ruined her day, not because she didn't want to go to a party with Matt — that part had been the good news, more because she'd been quite excited about the prospect of finishing work early and having a cosy night in to herself for once.

What was worse was that her interview at five had over run spectacularly, leaving her with only just enough time to shower and change. She did the remainder of her makeup in the car, took out her worn-all-day pony tail to fluff up her hair and she bolted for the venue in shoes that were already beginning to bite at her feet.

Miraculously, she made it on time, only to find herself alone, Matt, running fashionably late.

The atmosphere in the lobby was mellow. The clink of glasses and the low rumble of chit chat mixed with typically expensive sounding 'ambient jazz' was making her seriously regret the decision to drive here. She needed something to take the edge off, something to help her forget how forced the whole thing felt. And if anyone asked, her lemonade definitely had vodka in it.

She perched on a stool at the bar as boredom drove her head into her phone, just before she was startled by the sound of her name on a vaguely foreign tongue.

"Oh! Hi. Wait, erm.. Steven, right?" 

She hoped his name was Steven. She certainly couldn't tell you his second name — probably not one of her proudest moments.

"Yeah! I'm glad we remember eachother."

This was already awkward.

Steven, as far as she could remember, had approached her back when she'd only just moved to New York, mostly likely at a cocktail bar that was way out of her pay grade at the time. One thing had led to another and that was that. He was nice enough, but there was really nothing else to it. She'd never called or texted and there wasn't so much as a morsel of chemistry between them. Yet somehow, worryingly, he'd managed to spot her, from behind, in a crowded room, amongst the other, one point something million people living in Manhattan.

"You never called," he teased.

Karen forced a smile, " _yeah,_ sorry. Life got in the way a bit."

"I heard," Steven said, taking a seat on the stool beside her. He looked different to how she remembered him. He had one of those ultra-preened, hipster beards and slicked back dark hair that was breaking out into gingery curls at the back of his head. He wasn't quite giving her the cover-your-drink-with-your-hand vibe, but there was something clingy about him, something that raised her defenses up enough to make her squeeze her thighs together a little tighter.

"You've made a bit of a name for yourself since we last spoke." 

"Yeah," Karen chuckled, "it just sort of just happened," she studiously avoided looking at him as she downed the last of her overpriced lemonade, "what about you, did you get that job?"

The expression on his face changed then, from intrigue to pure satisfaction. Sometimes Karen really wished her brain didn't hold on to so much useless information about people. 

"I actually got a better one." 

"Oh. So are you here making connections too then?" Karen asked, serving him the bare minimum of interest she could afford without coming off as rude.

"I should be. But I'd much rather sit here."

The forced chuckle Karen let out then would have been enough to make any normal man toddle off with his tail between his legs. But not Steven. Not wannabe playboy-software-engineer-Steven.

"Don't let me keep you from business," she pressed, feeling his eyes burning holes through to her skin where her dress hugged her hips the tightest.

"Let me buy you a drink." 

"I'm driving," she spat out quickly.

"Oh. Something non-alcoholic then?" He leaned in on his elbow, close enough for her to smell whatever cologne he was wearing.

"Steven," she said, her voice beginning to waver under the weight of her impatience, "I don't want you to get the wrong idea here. I'm not interested in uh.."

"Oh. Are you with someone?"

"Yes, I'm with someone." 

"Oh…" he paused and lifted his beer to his lips – "well I won't tell if you wont."

The thought of slipping off her stool and leaving the way she came was mightily tempting, she would have done it too, if it weren't for the press of a hand on her waist and a familiar, hair-raising rasp at her back of her neck.

"Karen? Is that you?"

She breathed out a sigh of relief.

Matt _._

"Hey —"

He cut her off, "sorry I'm late," and like it was the most normal thing in the world, he leaned in and he kissed her – a peck, quick enough that she barely had to time to register it, but she found herself stock still, frozen for what felt like an age until Matt roused her with a squeeze of his hand on her waist that said; 'play along.'

She filled her lungs. 

"Who's this?" Matt asked, and to an onlooking stranger his smile was nothing but wide and inviting, a white toothed epitome of professionalism. But to Karen it had a whole different meaning. It was menacing – burning hot with an undertone of backthefuckoff and it was setting her whole body ablaze.

"Matt, this is Steven. An old acquaintance of mine." She knew that choice of words would piss him off. His face dropped in a way he probably wouldn't have allowed if it weren't for the obvious fact that Matt was blind.

"You're Matthew Murdock? I've heard a lot about you. Didn't know you two were an item though?"

"Oh. Well, uh.. we're pretty private about our personal lives," Matt answered modestly, the gargantuan size of his understatement almost making Karen laugh.

"That's understandable. I was just saying – Karen's made a real success of herself here." 

Annoyingly, it was never a secret when Karen felt flattered over a compliment, even if she didn't want to show it, her fair skin always gave her away, and she blushed even more when Matt turned towards her as if to appreciate the sentiment, "she has, didn't even have to get a law degree to do it. I'm a little jealous." 

Oh and she tried — really. But she couldn't wrangle her smile back. Even if he was just being chivalrous, it was still nice to hear, and it was even more amplified by the way he was encouraging her weight to lean against him, his grip on her waist feeling more than a little possessive.

They said their polite goodbyes to Steven and Matt folded away his cane as they walked away together, his arm still set in concrete at her back. She could feel the individual press of every one of his fingers, her skin bubbling with heat under every one of them, and for what? To dissuade a trivial amount of unwanted attention? 

Actually, the more she thought about it, the more it annoyed her. She'd almost, _almost_ had that little problem under control. Over the last few months she'd taken care to box her feelings away, possibly for the foreseeable. It had been a painful but necessary vivisection that she'd chosen because she loved her job, she loved working with Matt and Foggy and she couldn't afford to let her feelings get in the way of the success of their business or their friendship.

And it had worked. Until now, when apparently she was finding out it had all been a giant waste of time. 

"You know I didn't need saving right?" Karen finally plucked up the courage to speak, though her voice was a little higher than usual.

"Oh I know."

"So...you're not gonna ask me who he is?"

Matt opened his mouth — 

"Rhetorical question Matt. Don't ask me."

He raised his eyebrows and made a silent O shape with his mouth, wisely choosing not pry any further. 

They stopped just short of the main hall where there was a queue of people forming, right in front of yet another bar that Karen couldn't drink from.

"You know we're going to have to fake this for the rest of the night now right?" Karen ran her hands around the back of Matt's suit jacket collar, smoothing it out, bringing her fingers around to his neck to straighten his bow tie — Matt was wearing a tux. And fuck, he looked damn good in it too.

"I guess you're right."

Karen bit her lip and slid her hand into his and they walked, like a couple, into the heart of the party.

*

Even with Matt by her side, Karen felt like a complete spare part. There were people here who were some of the best in the world at what they did and she was so out of her depth, she found herself spending most of her time gazing at the marbled floor and wondering where all the free food Foggy had mentioned was going to turn up. 

Matt squeezed her hand, it was fast becoming their new communication format for the night, his lips coming to hover only a few inches from her ear, "don't get excited."

"What?" Karen blushed.

"The food. It's not cheap stuff." 

_Oh_.

It wouldn't surprise her if he could hear her stomach rumbling – God, the way he behaved sometimes, it wouldn't surprise her if he could hear her thoughts too. Either way, he'd just made her blush and wholefully disappointed her all at once. They shared the same sentiment when it came to the finer things in life, and by that she meant they'd both rather take their chances with a greasy takeout than be forced to pretend they liked all of that fancy stuff.

"Caviar," Matt whispered, tilting his head, his nose detecting the smell long before the waiters sauntered through the kitchen doors, "I hear it looks worse than it tastes."

Karen wrinkled her nose,"so we hitting the take out after this then yeah?" 

Matt smiled but didn't answer, someone had lured him back into a conversation and he clicked back into lawyer-Matt mode. But he squeezed her hand, signalling that he'd heard her and she squeezed back, and that was enough.

*

Cavier was weird. Like tiny salty, fishy water balloons. A hard pass.

It was getting late. A lot of people had already left, taking their boring, business chit chat with them. And although being introduced to so many people as Matt's 'girlfriend' was playing out like a very pleasant dream she may have had once or twice, a part of her was still starting to feel like a restless child who'd been dragged unwillingly to their parent's friends house, the words 'when are we leaving' proving more than a little difficult to keep from her lips.

When Matt had eventually asked her if she wanted to go, she'd been relieved but also saddened. Leaving meant that the night would be over soon and there was a chance that everything would return back to how it was — meaning that Matt would probably stop pretending, and she would have to start.

Thankfully, Matt's enthusiasm towards Karen's idea of take-out food gave them at least a few more precious hours.

There was a pretty locally renowned pizza place close by that she'd never tried. Matt said it smelt good and Matt's nose was always to be trusted. They argued for a while over toppings, eventually deciding to get one each due to Karen's adamant opinion over the right of pineapple to be anywhere near a pizza. 

After that, they walked to her car and Karen reluctantly drove Matt home. 

Except, she didn't.

She passed the turning for Matt's apartment twice, both times they'd been mid-conversation, so she'd kept driving. 

In the end they were just burning gas for the fun of it — like a pair of runnaways, Matt's suit jacket draped over the back of his chair, his bow tie pulled loose and stuffed carelessly into Karen's cup holder. And now she really did feel like she was in a dream.

He told her to pull up. She'd told herself not to read into it too much. But the thought of being alone with him, somewhere quiet like this, especially after the evening they'd just had, was making her strangely nervous.

It didn't feel like it had been dark all that long considering the time. The sky over the Hudson was painted with ominous looking clouds and the air was still laden thick with late August humidity.

"Is it weird I don't want to go home yet?" She let her words catch in the breeze as she tipped her chin up to gaze into the night.

It was late, and by late she meant it was early. Beyond the dark plateau above them, and still a few long hours away was the peachy glow of morning, actual darkness, seeming to have only lasted a few short moments.

No," Matt replied,"tonight's been nice."

Karen breathed deep and sighed, "yeah. It has." They were already shoulder to shoulder, but she allowed her weight to lean into him a little.

"I'm sorry I kissed you," Matt said softly, "I shouldn't have done that."

"It's okay."

"It's not. I took advantage."

"You really think that?"

A smile split his lips, knowing that she'd caught him in a lie, "well. It's just, I know we talked about the –"

"— the, 'you, reading into everything I feel' thing?"

Matt smiled. "Yeah. That."

"I guess I'll allow it. Just this once."

And as humiliating as it could be knowing your body's every urge – every reaction, no matter how miniscule, was being read like an old paperback, it still gave her a thrill, knowing that Matt knew her that way, the thought of opening up to him fully, letting him run his fingers greedily over the pages, was feeling less and less like something she wanted, and much more like something she needed.

They gravitated towards each other and she watched his head twitch in that sort of mechanical way that it did when he was being obvious about tuning in to something. His hand coming up to sift through the silky hair at her shoulder.

"Karen," he breathed, "will you let me kiss you? For real?"

It was the question she'd been waiting all night for, maybe all year, and her body had already answered with a yes.

Her arms wrapped around his shoulders as she melted at the feel of his mouth crashing into hers, all hands, and hips, and tongue as he pushed her up against the curved wall of metal behind her.

It was impossible not to want more. Soon their need was chasing them inside, Matt pulling on the handle of the rear passenger door and gesturing her into the back seat where she scrambled to straddle his thighs. 

Her hands smoothed over white cotton as he slouched, knees sliding forward into the back of the driver's seat, bringing their hips together firmly, and fuck — he was so hard for her.

All her inhibitions slipped away as speedily as the straps of her dress were brushed off her shoulders, her back arched as she invited him to her chest, his mouth closing around a sensitive nipple with an appreciative growl, "Karen. You drive me fucking crazy, you know that?" She bit back a moan as his hands sunk down into the small of her back, fingertips settling into soft flesh as she gathered up the fabric of her dress until it sat high on her waist.

"Why didn't you say anything –" she breathed, "I wanted —"

" — because I'm an idiot, Karen. I'm an idiot, and hurt you, and —" 

She pressed her fingers into his lips, "don't."

A button on his shirt came loose. Then another. And she found his gorgeous brown eyes, almost black in the dim light, "just show me."

He nodded and flipped her, hard plastic pinching at her shoulders as he splayed her out along the back seat. The space was restrictive, but Matt moved quickly and efficiently to strip most of his clothes, everything from his waist down hastily shoved around one ankle. 

And it was torturous, not being able to see him fully. The sleek, dappled outline of his almost naked body was taunting her in silhouette, starved of details — her hands came up as his shirt came open and she felt the lick of her own breath bouncing back against hard muscle, mingling with swirling with the scent of him – an indescribable essence, that to her, meant safety, it meant home.

"Karen," his voice quivered, "lay back." 

And as soon he was above her she was gasping for him – breathless. Her panties came away and landed somewhere on the front seat as he braced himself with one leg in the footwell — she was absolutely aching, and when he glided the head of his cock against her slick, hot center and eased in, God — he felt amazing. 

They rested their foreheads together for a long moment, just savouring the sensation of being wrapped around each other for the first time. When he did move, the angle was perfect, her body pushed up against the door meant that they were so tight, locked together, and he was so deep —

"Fuck, you feel so close already," Matt rasped, reading her effortlessly, feeling her every muscle coil around him like spring as his low voice rumbled deliciously in her ear, "is that good? Nice and slow?" 

She whimpered and nodded.

Everything was so good. So, so good. She was overflowing. And he was drinking her in, his lips sipping at soft skin wherever he could, the rocking and circling motion of his hips hitting her _just right_.

The shirt that was still half clinging to his shoulders needed to go. She grasped at it, begging with him to strip it off – he paused to peel it from his arms so she could finally feel all of him, his skin rising like braille to the hot scrape of her finger nails. 

Her breath was quickening now, coming in sharp little pants, making her body vibrate, Matt was homing in on the prize, his own breathing becoming laboured. His palm thumped suddenly against the window bottom as he sought something firm to anchor himself with — she wanted to see it, she wanted to watch him come apart for her.

"Matt — " her fingers slipped into his hair and she squeezed, "please," she begged, "give it to me – come with me."

A deep, feral sound erupted from him and it lit up her very core. He gave her everything. The car rocked and fuck – when it hit her. 

She clenched around him and he followed her over with ridiculous synchronicity — they were so high, they were unreachable together.

The two of them lay for a moment after, just breathing in the hot air that was still swilling between them, Matt, completely relaxed into her, every layer of him peeled back to rawness beneath.

"Stay tonight," he said, "stay with me." His eyes were still crinkled shut, still riding an aftershock, and clearly he had with no idea what time it was, 

"Matt. It's morning." 

He smiled lightly, "stay anyway." 

It was getting cool now, her skin was damp with sweat and the fog on the windows was reminding her that the early morning air was cold in contrast with the heat of them. The thought of a warm bed — a warm body to snuggle into.

He kissed her once more before pulling back to leave her stricken and bare and empty. The loss of him already reigniting her need.

But she did her best to clean herself up and she climbed back into the driver's seat as he climbed in beside her.

"Karen." Matt whispered, "I want this," his hand covered hers on the shifter, "for real."

She nodded silently as she turned the key in the ignition, an edgeless smile radiating across her face, "let's go home."

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Head canon — Matt likes pineapple on pizza and so do I. Don't @ me 😂


End file.
